Your Real Estate Postcard Mailers Strategy
Real estate postcards are one of the most effective marketing tools an agent has for reaching potential buyers and sellers. Postcards are easy and quick to read, very visual and simple to process, and small enough that you can easily stick them on the fridge or cork board. On top of that, they’re affordable–and when you’re doing marketing for your real estate business, you are always cost conscious.
But what is the best way to use real estate postcards? How can a real estate postcard strategy be effective? In this article, we look at what you need to include on your postcards, how you can personalize them to be more effective, and what tools and resources are going to help you accomplish your goals.
Marketing your real estate business doesn’t have to be hard. These tips will make it easy.
What to include in real estate marketing postcard mailers
Real estate postcard mailers are very effective because there is a wealth of information that you can include, always keeping things fresh and different. To make your postcard mailer stand out, you’re going to need to make sure that it’s different, that it’s eye-catching, and that it has a value proposition that can’t be ignored.
Postcards can include anything. Let’s start with postcards that introduce you as a real estate agent. These are effective because they humanize you and get people to like you–you’re not a faceless agency but a human being who looks friendly, reliable, and expert.
Postcards can also include real estate market reports–it seems like everyone is interested in how the housing market is doing these days, what their home is worth, and what home they could potentially afford. With all the volatility in real estate right now, some good hard numbers will be welcome indeed.
Just Listed, Just Sold, and Expired Listings are all topics for postcard mailers. These will let your audience know that you’ve got the pulse on the local market, that you’re making sales, and that you know what to do to get the job done.
In some areas, the housing market is moving so fast that by the time you get a New Listing postcard out there, the house may be gone. But a Just Sold postcard that shows pictures of the property and the selling price will always be interesting.
And there is so much more you can put on a postcard mailer. In this article, we’re going to dive even deeper.
What makes postcards for real estate so effective?
There are a number of reasons why postcards are so effective for the real estate market. Among them are:
Targeting a Neighborhood and Demographic
There is so much information available when you want to send out targeted postcards. Don’t get the impression that you’re firing blind. The lists of contacts available can break down the people you’re sending postcards to by age, income level, current address, even the amount of time they’ve lived in their home.
So when you’re sending out postcards, don’t imagine that you’re wasting a ton of time and money sending to the wrong people. You can get as granular as you like when you’re sifting through demographic data, and you can make sure that the people you’re sending to are ready for your message.
Real Estate Marketing Is All About Networking
It’s not an uncommon tactic for real estate agents to combine their postcard mailers with canvassing a neighborhood on foot, looking to meet people face-to-face. Maybe the real estate agent wants to find people who are interested in selling their home or maybe people looking to buy elsewhere. Making a personal connection–first, through a postcard introducing yourself, and later through facetime–is a tried and true approach.
Postcards Are Easy to Save
One of the best things about postcards is that, if you make your postcard with the right information, someone is going to stick that postcard on the fridge. They may not be ready to buy a house right now, and they may not be ready to pack up and move. But if your information is hung with a magnet on their fridge, then when they ARE ready to sell their house, you’re going to be top-of-mind.
You can make this even better by adding important statistics to the postcard, things that the person will want to know. If it’s an informational postcard, about market trends, or the process for first-time homebuyers, or stats about property taxes, all of these things are something that homeowners will want to keep for later.
What do you put on a real estate direct mail postcard?
We’ve already mentioned some of the things that you can put on a real estate postcard, but there are so many more. Some of these real estate postcard ideas include:
- Open House Information (If you act quickly, you can get Open House postcards out in a targeted campaign to people you know are looking in that area.)
- Renters-Targeted Postcards (Renters may be fed up with living with a landlord, sharing walls with noisy neighbors, and not getting any equity. All of these are reasons you can target them with postcards.)
- Home Anniversary Postcards (Send these to people with whom you worked a year ago because it’s ALWAYS good to maintain the network. People who used you once will refer you to someone else.)
- Real Estate Farming (Let people know that you’re interested in selling their house–even if they haven’t thought about selling. You might convince them that now is the best time to upsize or downsize.)
- Warnings About Predatory Buyers (It’s one thing to send out real estate farming postcards, but there are unscrupulous realtors who want to scam buyers and sellers. Sending out postcards warning of these practices can endear you to homeowners by helping them not get scammed.)
- Free Service Postcards (You can offer to give an estimated valuation of a home or to give a competitive analysis of the market. It’s something that will get the homeowner to contact you and make a connection, even if they’re not ready to make a buying or selling decision.)
- Unique Information Postcards (You can put ANYTHING on a postcard that will get them to put it on their fridge. Maybe it’s the high school football team’s schedule or the city’s Fourth of July events calendar. Put information they want on a card, and they’ll stick it in a place they’ll look at it often. Your face is always right there beneath it.)
- And there is so much more!
How to use personalization in real estate postcards
Personalizing your different types of postcards is one of the biggest advantages of using a direct mail postcard mailer. You’re targeting exactly who you want to get, in exactly the way you want to get them. Here are some tips.
Are your real estate postcards for sellers, buyers, referrals, or something else?
As we mention above, you don’t need to target EVERYONE in an entire zip code with the same postcard. You can break mailing lists down by demographics as much as you’d like. This can be useful in a number of ways.
Targeting Renters
By targeting renters, you know you’re working with first-time homebuyers, and you know you’re getting them the right information that will persuade them. Renters don’t want to hear about How To Sell Your Home, so those postcards are a waste. But they might definitely be interested to better understand the mortgage process, the closing process, and the affordable starter homes in their area.
Targeting Retirees
Often, targeting postcard mailers at retirees or empty nesters is a great way to get a house sold. They may be getting too old to take care of the big yard, and they don’t need all the space now that the kids are gone. They might want to move to a nice condo where someone else takes care of the lawn. And that means you might have a great opportunity to sell their home.
Targeting Longtime Homeowners
By sending postcards to homeowners who have lived in their homes for a long time–many years–you might find that their circumstances have changed. Maybe their family has grown, their kids are older, and they need more room. Maybe they’ve had job changes and can afford a better home in a better part of town. Things change over time, and that’s a great chance to make a targeted approach.
So, how can you use data to personalize your real estate postcard design?
By now, the answer to this is probably obvious. Look at the data available to you from your data broker, see how you can break it down into demographic group mailing lists, and begin the process of making targeted mail campaigns.
How do you say thank you to real estate clients?
Saying “thank you” to real estate clients is SO important because a happy client is a client who will refer their friends to you. If they’ve had a good experience, people are always in the market for honest real estate advice from people who won’t try to scam them. And the best kind of marketing is word-of-mouth. So send postcards to their home to congratulate them on moving in. Send them a Christmas card. Send them a one-year anniversary card. Just maintain the relationship, and it will pay dividends.
Real estate postcards tools & resources
Why use a new custom-designed real estate postcard to advertise for your realty business?
Using a company like Modern Postcard to create and send your postcards is one of the smartest things you can do. You’re a real estate agent, and you’re good at it. But you’re not a postcard marketer, and you’re probably not a graphic designer. Relying on experts who can create custom-designed postcards for your campaign is going to save you time and money–and the end result will be better than what you could have imagined.
We also have a design team that has worked with thousands of real estate agents and know how to make real estate postcards that get results. We will work with you to make sure that the layout and messaging is perfect for your campaign.
How much should you pay for real estate postcards?
For information about how much to pay for real estate postcards, contact us for a quote.